On free lunch & active management

Inherent in asset allocation theory is that the best performing asset classes varies from year to year and it is not easily predictable. Therefore having a mixture of asset classes is likely to meet your goals. A more fundamental justification for asset allocation is the notion that different asset classes offer non-correlated returns. As such, this diversification reduces the overall risk in terms of the variability of returns for a given level of expected return. This is as close to a free lunch as you will get in the world of investing.

Some people think that active money management is a hoax or lure to quick riches, like gambling. IFA Harold Evensky sums it up pretty much when he says "to match the performance of a buy-and-hold (passive) portfolio, the active manager would have to be correct 70% of the time".
In short, he is saying that it's close to impossible for an active portfolio to beat a passive one. There are, however, some, exceptions. Consider Legg Mason's Bill Miller who beat the S&P Index for the last 15 years by posting a 16.2% return from 1990 to 2005. According to Bloomberg Magazine, this record puts Miller in the same league as Warren Buffett. The odds of finding this expert to manage your money are 1 in 2.5 million!